Assistance

I was told by this new temp agency that working for this company would be very hard work and that I would need to be assertive and not take no for an answer. I was a young guy, fresh out of college and I thought I would be able to do those things no problem.

Turns out my boss thought I was the new executive assistant and not a technician. I tried to correct him but he kept telling me to speak up and put some bass in my voice. I got flustered and he led me to his office.

"So, Estelle, the HR lady you interviewed with told you that assistants are required to adhere to strict dress code. Right." He said while sitting down at his desk.

"Yes, she did tell me about the dress code but, I'm not an assis-"

"Good! Good! Do you have a hair color preference?" He said cutting me off again.

"A what? Sir, please listen to m-"

But, this time I was cut off by a laser beam shot from a pyramid shaped device on his desk. It made quick work of me, rearranging my molecules into that a leggy blonde.

"I'll never understand you weirdos who want to go through with this. Anyway, I'll take my afternoon from Starbuck's ASAP. Ask Sally what I normally order on the way out." He ushered me out of his office quickly.

I was still in shock and uncomfortable in my new outfit. I tried to ask around the office for help but all I got were coffee orders. That is until I found Sally at the front desk.

"Oh, are you the new assistant?" She beamed happily.

"Yea- No! I'm the new engineer! I got in to work this and the boss wouldn't let me clarify my position and he did this to me!" I shouted. Happy that somebody was finally listening to me.

"Oh, new engineer? That explains a lot." She said going into a hushed tone.

"What?" I questioned feeling a bit paranoid because Sally had gone into full blown paranoia mode; looking around and crouching down closer to me.

"There's a rival company that wants to steal our prototype. They pose as a temp agency and send a bunch of guys in here to 'work' as engineers and then call them and ask them how their day at the company went in hopes of gleaming new information."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" I shout back.

"Well, the person who runs the temp agency is in a situation similar to you. He did legitimately work here but got pranked by the boss and is now trying to build one of the prototypes in order to change back. The funny thing is, the boss would've changed him back if he hadn't stormed off like that."

"Wait! So, he'll change me back." I asked hopefully.

"Yeah. He changes every one back. Unless you find that you like your new form better. Some of us do." She said winking at me.

I took the boss' coffee order from Sally and went to get it. I walked slowly not so much because of the heels but because I was starting to like this body.

When I got back, the boss took his coffee and apologized for the prank. He sat back down at his desk and I told him that I'd rather stay this way. He agreed to hire me and have me work at the front desk with the "other one".

Easy!

"This is going to be easy!" I said practicing my sister's dance routine, "I don't know what she was so nervous about."

I love my family and this proves without a doubt that I would do anything for them. My sister was a nervous wreck. She had been auditioning for a local dance team. As she was starting to build up a popularity among the girls in this dance team, she moved up the ranks quickly and soon was cast as the lead in her very first recital.

She had always had bad stage fright. I thought this would be good for her to get over it. But, as the recital date grew ever closer, she became consumed with fear and anxiety. She stopped eating and was forgetting things like putting on matching socks, closing the fridge door and leaving the oven on. I decided I needed to intervene or face the whole house blowing up.

Our father was an independently wealthy engineer who was living happily off of the licensing fees from his patents. He still had the urge to invent but rarely did much work anymore.

One day, I was tasked with cleaning his lab area by my mother. It was great because the lab was insulated and out of the way in the the scary part of the basement. So, I was able to work slowly and nobody would bother me or make me do any other chores that afternoon. While cleaning up around his computer, I moved the mouse and his screen came on. I read the report he was working on and was amazed by what I had seen. He had schematics for a mind transfer machine!

I took some photos of his screen with my phone camera and made it my pet project to actually build this thing and see if it worked. Imagine what I could do! I could take control of my teachers and give myself straight A's!

I spent months gathering the parts from purchasing them online to scavenging them from old broken electronics around the neighborhood. I finally finished and now had a reason to tell somebody about it. Keeping such a huge secret was killing me.

I approached my sister in her room, "Hey, sis! Mind if I talk to you about something?"

"Oh, no! Did I forget something else?" She put her head in her hands, "I think I might be losing my hair!"

"No, no! Nothing like that. It's just that I've seen you've been stressed out and I wanted to help you." I sat down on the bed next to her and gave her a soft hug.

"I don't see how you can unless you can do that recital for me. I just wanted to be a background dancer and work on my stage fright slowly." She said her face still muffled by her hands.

"I think I can." I said to her. She threw my arm off of her and looked at me like I had gone crazy.

"I don't think you'll fit in the costume. Not to mention, since we hit puberty, we look really different. Oh and there's the whole crossdressing thing that'll be really weird-" She had clearly been triggered.

I held up my hand to stop the torrent of ideas rushing from her, "No! Not like that. Just- Just come with me." I grabbed her hand and led her to my room. I opened my closet and showed her my creation, "It's a mind transferer!" I flourished toward the pile of electrical components and scrap aluminum.

"I thought you were just acting crazy. Do mom and dad know you've actually gone crazy?" She said and started backing out of the room.

"Wait!" I said a little more forcefully than I wanted to, "This is real. I stole one of dad's unfinished schematics and built it myself in secret."

"This is dad's idea? Why would he even need one of these?" She said, relaxing a bit and walking over to the machine.

"Probably for situations like this." I quipped happy with my comeback.

"You'll really do the recital for me?" She looked back at me with hope in her eyes.

"Yeah. I'd do anything for you. You're my favorite sister." I said, starting to have second thoughts about this plan. I didn't expect her to actually want to try it out.

Before I said another word, she was strapping the helmet onto herself and motioning for me to take mine.

"I should state something first." I said as she was messing around with the control panel.

"Hmm?" She said concentrating and not listening, "This is surprisingly user friendly. Good job, bro!"

"It hasn't been tested yet." I said a bit louder this time. But, it was too late. She activated it and we swapped.

While I was happy that my machine worked. I was suddenly regretting this choice. My sister in my body rushed me out of my room, "You're a life saver, bro- I mean sis. Thank you so much. You've got practice in a couple of hours, you should probably get ready. Don't be afraid to mess up a little maybe they'll demote me." She shut the door in my face and I had no choice but to go to dance practice.

When I got there. I realized her body has an innate agility and balance. I don't think their going to be demoting her anytime soon.

Top Secret

"Finally some privacy!" I sighed and took out my phone to take a selfie, "Whoa! Is that what I look like now? Man, they aren't playing when they say deep cover."

I was part of deep state enforcement group. We are so classified that any acronym to describe the department would also have to be redacted.

I was a new recruit to this division. It had been my dream since I was a little boy to join the military because of family tradition. I signed up and scored highly on all of my physical and mental tests. It was looking like I was going to move up the ranks very quickly. That is until I died. Well, officially died that is.

I was approached one night while working out alone in the gym near my base installation by two muscular men in very professional looking black suits. They moved in synchronization with each other as if they had some kind of prescience of the other's actions.

I stopped what I was doing and stared at them as they moved from the parking lot to the door and into the gym with an almost paranormal ability to stick to the shadows and move silently.

They approached me and one of them began to talk, "Sargent Meadows. We have orders from our superiors to escort you to a meeting with our commanding officer." His voice was a middle-of-the-road baritone. Not special in any way it was almost weird that it was so generic. His speaking structure was very robotic and matter-of-fact.

I put my dumbbell down on the rack, "Who are you and why would I want to go anywhere with you?" I laughed, "This men in black routine doesn't scare me. Hate to break it to you guys. You're good though. A for effort."

The suit that hadn't spoke handed me a piece of paper. It was official orders. Signed by my commanding officer.

"The offer is optional. The meeting is not." The first suit spoke again.

I got my phone out and gave my Commanding officer a call. He seemed very distressed to be talking to me and dodged all of questions. He did let me know that the orders were legitimate.

I turned to pick up my gym bag only to be blocked by the silent suit.

"We'll take care of your belongings. This meeting is high priority." The other spoke from behind me.

"Okay..." I stepped toward the door only to have my arm grabbed from behind.

"Please leave your cellular device with your other belongings." The chatty suit commanded.

"Sure thing..." I was very apprehensive. I walked over to my bag and picked it up to unzip it. In the process I preformed a slight of hand and stowed my phone in my sleeve, "There you go. Let's get to this meeting." I said tossing my bag back onto the ground.

The suits exchanged a nod and the one that spoke grabbed my arm. I thought they had seen me try to smuggle my phone and I was about to get it. However, before I had a chance to react, my vision went white. Immediately after the flash I felt a cold sensation on my feet and back.

I was sat in a metal chair in front of a conference table. On the opposite end of the table, there was an old man in military fatigues and another man in the same ultra professional suit. The military man spoke first, "Welcome, Sargent. We've been made aware of your excellence. Particularly your affinity toward deception and trickery."

He explained the purpose of this secret agency was to influence all global events. Basically, everything that happens on Earth is planned out to have the best outcome for the United States. They use alien technology recovered from the Roswell incident to get around any obstacles that may crop up.

I expressed my skepticism but accepted their offer. I mean, who wouldn't?

 I was escorted to a private barrack and was told that my mission details would arrive within the hour.

I checked that the coast was clear and pulled out my phone. That's how I learned that the gym I was in had an unfortunate gas leak and explosion. I was the only casualty.

I didn't have time to complain because the intercom in my room activated and I was summoned to a lab at the end of the corridor. I quickly hid my phone and did as I was told.

The lab was small. It had only a large tube like chamber and a control panel. The doctor came out from behind the chamber.

"Agent M? Oh, you have a doosie of a mission. Infiltrate a new gang that has been forming in Southern California and manipulate them to create competition with the Mexican cartels. They have the ability and only need the motivation and direction. Step into the chamber please." He was already tapping away on the control panel.

"Wait! What? How is that going to help anything?" I stammered taken aback by the speed of the doctor. Did he not know I was new?

"They don't tell me the why just the what. Honestly, I don't care about the why. Now please step in the chamber."

"What is this thing?" I asked allowing myself to pushed toward it by an ever more frustrated doctor.

"The Transformer. You'll need to be in deep cover this mission."

Finally closing the door to this machine on me, "The trans what?" Was the last thing I could say before my vision went white again.

Next thing I knew I was in my barrack and looked like this. I tried to get a better look at myself but some suites entered my room and told me it was time to head to the mission location. They escorted me down the corridor. I managed to convince them that I needed to use the restroom first.

As I was staring at the selfie I took. I heard the intercom in the bathroom go off, "You get one more strike Agent M. You better preform well on this mission to make up for the violation of the outside communication rule. You should know we have eyes all over and we can change more than just your body. Good luck, Agent and don't fuck this up."